A Word of Thanks to Paid Subscribers (and Encouragement to Free Subscribers)
DUBLIN, IRELAND (August 6, 2024) — I want to express my gratitude to my paid subscribers — those that made the move from my previous platform and those who have subscribed since the move in May.
I just passed the 90-day mark since announcing the move to Ghost: BOO! Moving Day May 13th. I do not share financials, but I will say that paid subscribers are up 75% since the move, which is exciting and a validation of the new platform and the new pricing model.
Thank you for your support!
My long-term goal is for all subscribers to have Premium accounts costing $7 a month or two-months free, with an annual subscription costing $70 instead of $84. This way, I get more financial support and readers get every word of every story.
I have many legacy subscribers with free accounts from my previous platform. With Ghost, I have to pay the company for every subscriber, whether free or paid, and I would rather not carry free subscribers at a loss. To address that, I removed the free subscription option for brand-new subscribers. Those with free subscriptions before my move to Ghost are grandfathered in on a limited basis; remaining free subscriptions will be removed at the end of the year.
To ease the migration of free subscribers to a paid subscription, I created a low-cost Basic subscription tier with a nominal fee of $5 a year. The idea is to encourage remaining free subscribers to switch now to paid subscribers by offering one-month free trials and a low-priced basic account that will replace the free account and hope they eventually (or immediately) upgrade to Premium.
As of January 1, 2024, all subscribers (100%) will be paid subscribers whether with Basic or Premium subscriptions.
If you have not already upgraded to a paid subscription you can do so here for as low as $5 for a year with a Basic subscription. What are you waiting for?
CLICK: Your Account Portal
Why Upgrade?
Free Accounts are no longer available to new subscribers. Those grandfathered in today who do not upgrade to a paid account by December 31, 2024, will be removed on that day. In the remaining few months, free subscribers will be limited to a weekly email newsletter with links to recommended articles on Talk of the Sound (free), links to articles elsewhere on the web (mostly free but some paywalled content) and the headlines of my Paid and Premium content with a teaser but not the actual articles.
Basic Accounts are just $5 a year with the first month free and include the weekly email newsletter described above, full non-Premium articles, commenting, and access to the archive of non-Premium content.
Premium Accounts are $7 a month or two-months free, with an annual subscription costing $70 instead of $84 — either with the first month free. Premium includes everything and is the best value: all articles in full, the newsletter, commenting, archives, bonus content and more.
I would encourage all Free Account subscribers to upgrade immediately to at least a Basic Account and certainly consider a Premium account, which is the gold standard.
